Has the BJP’s game changer arrived?

Subliminal message? Or deliberate ploy to signal a break with the past? When the 52-year-old new BJP chief Nitin Gadkari walked in to address his first ever press conference with the national media on December 24, he was sporting a tweed jacket and trousers; Not the dhoti-kurta of the lotus brigade!
With Gadkari’s arrival at the helm of BJP affairs, the Sangh has forced open the door for leaders in the third rung to climb the slippery saffron stairs. Till now the top post was generally reserved for a select few at the top. No regional BJP leader has made it beyond the post of general secretary. From Atal Behari Vajpayee, L.K. Advani, Murali Manohar Joshi, Kushabhau Thakre, Jana Krishnamurthy, M. Venkaiah Naidu and Rajnath Singh, the BJP has never looked beyond Delhi. Mr Gadkari’s elevation has changed the game.
Maharashtra is ecstatic. Making history of sorts, legislators, cutting across party lines, moved a motion congratulating Gadkari for taking over as BJP chief in the state Assembly. If that was not enough, Maharshtra Chief Minister and Congress leader Ashok Chavan went to the residence of Gadkari with a bouquet of flowers to congratulate him.
Gadkari has also broken with the BJP practise of making vitriolic attacks against the Gandhis, when asked to comment on AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi’s moves to visit Dalit households. “Karne dijiye na. Kya kharabi hain” was the crisp reply.
But Gadkari’s agenda is clear. He has been brought in by the Sangh to get the BJP out of the the cycle of infighting and project it as a viable alternative to the Congress.
He echoes the RSS line when he says, . “Our main task is to adhere to the philosophy.” In other words, Hindutva.
The RSS and the other Sangh outfits are also disillusioned with Advani and his team for putting ideology on the backburner. The Sangh could do little to Mr Vajpayee because of his stature but was less forgiving with Mr Advani, when he dared to praise Jinnah.
As the battle for control of the BJP’s mindspace continues, and Mr Advani and the RSS are still on opposite sides, the defeat of the BJP-led NDA in the general elections opened the door for the RSS to move in. The first indication came when new RSS sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat, a Maharashtrian Brahmin, declared that the new BJP chief “will not be from Delhi”. This rattled the Delhi-4 (Arun Jaitley, Venkaiah Naidu, Ananth Kumar and Sushma Swaraj): Each looking at the possibility of taking over after the exit of Rajnath Singh.
Sources disclosed that Mr Advani, who saw the writing on the wall, is said to have made a bargain with the Sangh. “The RSS pushed and a cornered Advani agreed,” said an insider.
Faustian bargain or otherwise, it soon became obvious that Mr Bhagwat’s man for the job was another Maharashtrian Brahmin — the state unit chief, Mr Nitin Gadkari. Even the BJP-Shiv Sena combine being routed in the Maharashtra assembly polls did not stop the move to bring in Mr Gadkari, in-charge of the state unit. For the RSS, a commitment to ideology was more important than “mere electoral gains,” said one insider.